Detailed Instructions: Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.
Q: Someone told me that I shouldn't use the phrase discuss about, but should say, instead, discuss (the topic). He said discuss means talk about and using discuss about is like saying talk about about, which is redundant. Is he correct? Could somebody elaborate on this?.
A:
Your friend is correct. You can discuss something, or you can talk about it, but discuss about is redundant for the reason you identified. discuss: to speak with another or others about But if you want to use the word about, you can have a conversation about, confer about, debate about, or even have a powwow about. Most of the other synonyms for discuss don't take about, nor is it needed to converse (or debate).